 Bernhard Russi in 1972 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | (1948-08-20)20 August 1948 (age 77) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Alpine skier | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 183 cm (6 ft 0 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Skiing career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disciplines | Downhill,giant slalom | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | SC Gotthard Andermatt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| World Cup debut | 8 January1968 (age 19) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Retired | March1978 (age 29) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | bernhardrussi.ch | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Olympics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Teams | 2 – (1972,1976) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Medals | 2 (1 gold) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| World Championships | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Teams | 5 – (1970–1978) (includes two Olympics) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Medals | 3 (2 gold) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| World Cup | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Seasons | 9 –(1970–1978) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wins | 10 – (9DH, 1GS) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Podiums | 28 – (27 DH, 1 GS) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Overall titles | 0 –(5th in1971,'72,'77) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline titles | 2 – (2DH:1971,1972) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Bernhard Russi (born 20 August 1948) is a formerWorld Cupalpine ski racer fromSwitzerland. Born inAndermatt in the canton ofUri, he is anOlympic,World Cup, andWorld champion in thedownhill event.[1]
Russi made hisWorld Cup debut at age 19 in January1968 at agiant slalom inAdelboden. After two races in 1968 and six in1969, he joined the World Cup circuit full-time in December1969.[2] However, his racing career was set back at this time by his work as a stuntman in the movieOn Her Majesty’s Secret Service which was filmed inSwitzerland and during which he fractured a cervical vertebra. After a period of rehabilitation from this injury, he was able, for the first time in several months, to compete in the downhill Race atVal d'Isère on 14 December 1969, in which he placed 14th. He gained World Cup Points by recording his first World Cup top ten finish (tenth in the downhill on 10 January on theLauberhorn piste inWengen). He went on to achieve a fourth place in the downhill atGarmisch-Partenkirchen on 1 February, leading to him being selected for the Swiss team at the1970 World Championships, where he won his first event, the downhill, ahead ofKarl Cordin of Austria and AustralianMalcolm Milne. It was a race with fresh snow, and he was the 15th racer on the start list - a good number for such conditions. He won despite suffering a hand fracture a week before in a practice race, contending with the pain during his winning run. Notably, he skied his winning run withoutski wax as his coach Paul Berlinger scraped the wax off his skis directly before the start. Because the World Championships counted towards the World Cup at this time, his World Championship win was also his first World Cup race victory. Two years later at the1972 Olympics inSapporo,Japan, he won the gold medal in thesame discipline onMt. Eniwa. CountrymanRoland Collombin secured the silver and a Swiss one-two. Russi won the World Cup season title in downhill in1971 and1972. That year, he was named asSwiss Sportsman of the Year for the second time, and he was also awarded with theSkieur d’Or, for the world's ski racer of the year, and the Étoile d’Or (theGold Star).[citation needed]
His performance in the1974 World Championships on home snow was disappointing; he was thirteenth in the downhill atSt. Moritz. At the1976 Olympics inInnsbruck,Austria, Russi nearly retained his Olympic title with a very fast time in thedownhill atPatscherkofel, but took the silver medal. The third racer on the course, he finished 0.33 seconds behindFranz Klammer of Austria, who started fifteenth, the last of the top seeds. To date (2018) no men's Olympic champion in the downhill has successfully defended his title; Russi remains the sole defender to medal.
As in 1974, his performance in the1978 World Championships at Garmisch was disappointing, finishing fourteenth in the downhill in late January. As a result of this, he retired from international competition a few days later with ten World Cup victories, 28 podiums, and 52 top ten finishes. In addition to his two downhill titles in 1971 and 1972, Russi was second in1973 and third in1976 and1977. His best finish in the overall standings was fifth, achieved three times in 1971, 1972, and 1977.[3][4]
From1948 through1980, the Winter Olympics also served as theworld championships for alpine skiing. During the early seasons of theWorld Cup, the Olympics(1968) and world championships(1970) were included in the World Cup season standings; these major competitions were excluded beginning with the1971 season.
Russi currently serves as the chairman of theFIS Alpine Committee and is a FIS technical advisor for downhill course design. Beginning with the1988 Winter Olympics, Russi has been noted as a designer ofdownhill courses for theOlympics, and he has also designed such courses for the FIS Alpine Skiing World Championships. TheRattlesnake-course atVail in 1989 was a "formidable challenge" to him. Another famous course of his was theLa face de Bellevarde atVal-d’Isère (1992 Winter Olympics), and he was the construction supervisor for theRosa Khutor course atKrasnaja Poljana (2014 Winter Olympics). This stemmed from dissatisfaction with the courses at the1980 and1984 games; since Russi took over, there have been few complaints.[5][6]He also serves as a commentator for alpine ski racing on Swiss television.[7] - He also is abrand ambassador for Japanese car manufacturerSubaru and for several Swiss companies. After the end of his marriage to Michèle Rubi (a three-times Swiss Skiing Champion in 1970) he married Mari Bergström from Sweden. He has a son by his first wife and a daughter by his second.[citation needed]
| Season | Discipline |
|---|---|
| 1971 | Downhill |
| 1972 | Downhill |
| Season | Age | Overall | Slalom | Giant Slalom | Super G | Downhill | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 21 | 19 | — | — | not run | 5 | awarded only in 1976 |
| 1971 | 22 | 5 | — | 8 | 1 | ||
| 1972 | 23 | 5 | — | 23 | 1 | ||
| 1973 | 24 | 6 | — | — | 2 | ||
| 1974 | 25 | 17 | — | — | 4 | ||
| 1975 | 26 | 11 | — | — | 4 | ||
| 1976 | 27 | 8 | — | — | 3 | — | |
| 1977 | 28 | 5 | — | — | 3 | ||
| 1978 | 29 | 28 | — | — | 12 |
| Season | Date | Location | Discipline | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 15 Feb 1970 |  Val Gardena,Italy –(W.Ch.) ^ | Downhill | 1st |
| 1971 | 16 Jan 1971 |  St. Moritz,Switzerland | Downhill | 2nd |
| 31 Jan 1971 |  Megève,France | Downhill | 1st | |
| 13 Feb 1971 |  Mt. Ste. Anne,Canada | Giant slalom | 1st | |
| 18 Feb 1971 |  Sugarloaf,USA | Downhill | 1st | |
| 1972 | 5 Dec 1972 | St. Moritz, Switzerland | Downhill | 1st |
| 14 Jan 1972 |  Kitzbühel,Austria | Downhill | 3rd | |
 1972 Winter Olympics | ||||
| 25 Feb 1972 | Crystal Mtn, USA | Downhill | 1st | |
| 26 Feb 1972 | Downhill | 2nd | ||
| 25 Mar 1972 | Val Gardena, Italy | Downhill | 1st | |
| 1973 | 7 Jan 1973 |  Garmisch,West Germany | Downhill | 3rd |
| 13 Jan 1973 | Grindelwald, Switzerland | Downhill | 1st | |
| 27 Jan 1973 | Kitzbühel, Austria | Downhill | 2nd | |
| 3 Feb 1973 | St. Anton, Austria | Downhill | 1st | |
| 1974 | 22 Dec 1973 | Schladming, Austria | Downhill | 3rd |
| 1975 | 26 Jan 1975 | Innsbruck, Austria | Downhill | 2nd |
| 21 Mar 1975 | Val Gardena, Italy | Downhill | 3rd | |
| 1976 | 7 Dec 1975 | Val-d'Isère, France | Downhill | 3rd |
| 9 Jan 1976 | Wengen, Switzerland | Downhill | 3rd | |
| 17 Jan 1976 | Morzine, France | Downhill | 2nd | |
| 1976 Winter Olympics | ||||
| 1977 | 18 Dec 1976 | Val Gardena, Italy | Downhill | 3rd |
| 15 Jan 1977 | Kitzbühel, Austria | Downhill | 3rd | |
| 22 Jan 1977 | Wengen, Switzerland | Downhill | 3rd | |
| 30 Jan 1977 | Morzine, France | Downhill | 1st | |
| 31 Jan 1977 | Downhill | 3rd | ||
| 18 Feb 1977 | Laax, Switzerland | Downhill | 3rd | |
| 12 Mar 1977 | Heavenly Valley, USA | Downhill | 3rd | |
| 1978 | 22 Dec 1977 | Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy | Downhill | 2nd |
^Results from the1970 World Championships (and1968 Winter Olympics) were included in theWorld Cup standings.
| Year | Age | Slalom | Giant Slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 21 | — | — | not run | 1 | — |
| 1972 | 23 | — | — | 1 | — | |
| 1974 | 25 | — | — | 13 | — | |
| 1976 | 27 | — | — | 2 | — | |
| 1978 | 29 | — | — | 14 | — |
From1948 through1980, theWinter Olympics were also theWorld Championships for alpine skiing.
| Year | Age | Slalom | Giant Slalom | Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | 23 | — | — | not run | 1 | not run |
| 1976 | 27 | — | — | 2 |
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Philippe Clerc | Swiss Sportsman of the Year 1970 | Succeeded by Meta Antenen |
| Preceded by Meta Antenen | Swiss Sportsman of the Year 1972 | Succeeded by Werner Dössegger |
| International | |
|---|---|
| People | |
